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No single method for explanation works completely; rephrase concepts in a variety of ways to make it more likely a lesson will ‘click’.

  • Remember, from kindergarten to college, students’ brains are still developing. What may seem simple to you may be very cognitively difficult for a younger student to comprehend. Phrasing material in a variety of ways can help students understand advanced material.

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Interview with John Dougherty

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Other Tips By John Dougherty

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Show a variety of for loops conditionals (e.g., < vs. <=; different variable names, different start values, different increment operations) to avoid common misconceptions about loops.
Write code in class in real time. This way you’ll be forced to pace yourself, so students can better see and understand the process you’re going through.
Give students scaffolding tools such as outlines, graphic organizers, and copies of projected materials with room for note taking.

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Use Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery as a source for current CS news to help students understand the cultural importance of the field.
Have students break their code into smaller pieces to find out where the bug might be.
Explain nested for loops using a car odometer, the innermost loop controlling the ones digit must cycle fully before the outer loops steps forward, to help students better understand nested loops through a real world example.

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